Calgary, Alberta, Canada — February 1, 2005 — Vantis, the largest provider of marketing and revenue generation services for independent hotels, car rental companies and airlines, demonstrated its continued commitment to helping clients optimize their profitable revenue today by launching Viz-it, a comprehensive suite of online rich media solutions. 

Viz-it helps drive more web reservations for hotels by combining a suite of rich media products with Vantis’ extensive distribution network, giving clients a competitive advantage in the crowded Internet environment. The Viz-it suite of products includes videos, virtual property tours and audio-enhanced moving slideshows. 
 

"Third-party booking sites have traditionally concentrated on price discounting to sell rooms, which has significantly lowered profitable revenue for operators," said Vantis president Kelly Blake. "Viz-it reverses this trend by raising web shoppers’ focus to the value delivered by a property as opposed to room cost alone. Plus Vantis’ extensive distribution to a wide range of booking sites will help motivate the maximum number of shoppers." Blake also noted that the more shoppers can see of a property on the Internet, the longer they will stay on the booking site, and the more likely they

Kelly Blake

According to PhoCusWright, 40 percent of all hotel bookings begin online. Travelers who research hotels online are visiting between three and seven websites before they make a decision, which makes it essential that properties post their most compelling content in as many places as possible. Rich media property visuals create greater viewer interest and communicate property selling points more effectively than text alone. Coupled with Vantis’ extensive distribution network of more than 5,000 travel websites, including Travelocity, Yahoo Travel, Orbitz, Priceline and TripAdvisor, Viz-it drives increased bookings and more profitable revenue from web reservations. 

The Viz-it full suite of rich media products is tailored to suit any property and budget, from luxury to economy. Premium Video Tours walk potential guests through a hotel’s property, inside and out. Photovideo Tours look remarkably close to a full-motion video but use existing photographs with narration and music, saving hotels the expense and work of an actual video shoot. Premium 360s capture stunning 360-degree views of the property, and PhotoFlicks is the most cost-effective way to influence consumers with rich media by turning current photography into moving slideshows. Plus it is easily versioned to target different audiences.

Viz-it builds on Vantis’ existing suite of website solutions, which currently includes website hosting and design, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising and e-mail harvesting.

About Vantis

Vantis is a marketing and revenue management consulting organization for hotels, car rental companies and airlines. Founded in 1979, the privately held Calgary, Alberta-based firm partners with its clients to optimize their profitable revenue. Vantis offers clients a range of products and services in areas such as revenue management, marketing, channel management, website solutions and voice reservations to ensure they consistently use their most profitable business mix. The company helps clients sell the right hotel room, rental car or airplane seat to the right person at the right price for optimum profitability. With more than 5,000 clients worldwide, Vantis is the industry's largest provider of reservation sales services. The organization is a central distribution point to every viable Internet booking site and to all of the major GDS, including Sabre, Galileo, Pegasus, WorldRes, Amadeus and Worldspan. Vantis has U.S. headquarters in Dallas, Texas and significant development office presence in a number of cities around the world, including Denver, London, Berlin, Sydney and Hong Kong.